Man found guilty on all counts in Bucktown bat-beating trial

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The man charged with beating two women with a baseball bat 3 years ago was found guilty Thursday.

There was a mountain of damning evidence against Heriberto Verimontes–jailhouse admissions, surveillance video linking him to the crime and witness testimony that may have sealed his fate.

Stacy Jurich, one of the two women beaten spoke to the media after the verdict was read. She says is ready to start her new life again.

“(It’s) reliving what happened,” she said. “To know this person can never walk again with me on the street again … is extremely comforting.”

34-year-old Verimontes was convicted of beating Jurich and her good friend Natasha McShane with a baseball bat three years ago.

The verdict came down in just three and a half hours.

Jurich and the McShane family clutched hands inside the courtroom as the verdict was being read.

“While there is a sense of justice for the McShane family, their pain continues because natasha has been changed forever,” Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said.

Natasha, now 27, lives in Northern Ireland and is unable to speak, read or walk alone. Family said she stayed up with relatives well after midnight until the verdict came in.

Her aunt, Caroline McShane was by her side tonight and said, “We’re just glad it’s over and Natasha can start building her life again. He deserves whatever sentence he gets.”

The defendant is upset, his lawyers claim, that Viramontes was found guilty on all counts. He was alone in the courtroom when the verdict was read aloud. The judge did not wait for his family to return to the building.